The Rajya Sabha witnessed a one-time adjournment during parliamentary proceedings on Tuesday after an uproar by Opposition members on various issues confronting the nation. The issues they raised were the inflation and imposition of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on some essential items including wheat and rice and Agneepath scheme of recruitment in defense services.
After the one-time adjournment, as soon as the sitting of the House began at 2 pm, there was ruckus and sloganeering from the Opposition parties. Opposition members were seen raising slogans against inflation and demanding that the government withdraw its decision to impose GST on several essential packaged food items.
Amidst the uproar, Deputy Chairman Harivansh asked External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to introduce the Weapons of Mass Massacre and their Delivery System (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Amendment Bill, 2022. He requested the irate members to maintain calm as this is a very important bill. But the Opposition didn’t budge and the minister had no option but to introduce the bill against the backdrop of the din.
Deputy Chairman Harivansh kept repeatedly requesting the agitating members to return to their seat and allow the Bill to be discussed, but they did not heed to his requests. Finding no way out, he had to adjourn the proceedings of the House for the day within five minutes’ time. Earlier, within five minutes of the commencement of the morning’s proceedings, the House was adjourned till 2 pm.
As soon as the proceedings of the Upper House began on Tuesday morning, Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge wanted to say something, but Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu did not allow him to do so. After this, the Chairman laid the necessary documents on the Table of the House. Naidu said under Rule 267, several other members including Kharge have given notices for discussion on inflation and other issues, but they have not accepted them. These issues can be discussed on other occasions, he said. Protesting this, members of several opposition parties including Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) started a ruckus.
Due to the uproar on all the aforesaid issues on the first day of the session on Monday, the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha were adjourned for a day within an hour of sitting. Some other leaders, including Kharge and Tiruchi Siva of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Elamaram Karim of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), raised the issue of inflation, increase in the prices of petroleum products and the imposition of GST on food items. Notices of adjournment motion were given for discussion.
On the other hand, Deepender Singh Hooda of Congress had given adjournment notice to discuss the issue of Agneepath Scheme, while Manoj Jha of Rashtriya Janata Dal spoke about the impact of the scheme and deprivation of youth from railway recruitment opportunities. Raghav Chaddha of AAP had given notice of adjournment motion demanding discussion on the issue of committee constituted by the Centre regarding minimum support price (MSP). The monsoon session of Parliament had a ruckus on Monday. The Opposition members had given notices of adjournment motion demanding discussion on all these issues. However, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu rejected them.